


circle the date

by ten_miles_til_midnight



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 20:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ten_miles_til_midnight/pseuds/ten_miles_til_midnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan was thoughtful and methodical and the sort of boy who never forgot anniversaries.  Jordan and Taylor were not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	circle the date

Ryan was thoughtful and methodical. He was the type of guy who always remembered Mother's Day and birthdays early enough to make sure that he dropped a card in the mail with enough time for it to actually arrive and he never forgot obscure holidays or anniversaries. Jordan and Taylor were not. 

Ryan wasn't bothered that Taylor and Jordan forgot the first anniversary of the day they had shown up unannounced at his mom’s house in Burnaby, a week after Ryan’s shoulder surgery, three days after the Oiler’s last game and after two seasons of ice cream dates, lingering touches and sitting too close on the couch while pretending they were actually playing attention to the TV. “We’re done pretending this doesn’t mean something,” they told him when he opened the door, then drug Ryan to his bedroom, carefully wrapped themselves around his injured arm, pressed a kiss against his forehead and kept him.

It was in the middle of the first round of the playoffs - the first time the Oilers had made it in seven years! - Edmonton was down 1-3 against the Kings and it felt like they spent their entire life either at the rink or sleeping the sleep of playoff hockey. Ryan barely remembered the date himself between the excitement of _finally_ making the playoff and the exhaustion of the playoff schedule, and the night 29th he was too tired to want to do anything fancy. He insisted that they ordered something nice for dinner and broke out a fancy bottle of wine to split over their steak dinners before curling up next to Jordan in bed, Taylor's hand resting hot on his hip. Even if Taylor and Jordan didn't remember why today was special, Ryan felt better for marking the occasion.

After the first year, Ryan realized that their anniversary was going to be difficult. They would either be in the thick of the first round of the playoffs or getting over the heartbreak of not making the post season, neither of which were conducive to romantic weekend getaways. Their second year went much the same as the first. They had a blowout lost against the Stars that night, giving the Stars a two game advantage and staring down the barrel of an early elimination, and even Ryan felt frustrated with the fancy Italian dinner he had order the day before.

"No offense, Nuge," Hallsy said, resting his chin on Ryan's shoulder, hand resting on his belly, "but I'd rather have KD and some chicken, go to bed and pretend today never happened."

Next to him, Jordan nodded. "This will probably heat up well," he suggested.

Ryan scrubbed his face with his hand. "Today is the worst," he agreed. Turns out, the pasta did heat up well and eating it for dinner the next day on their patio, his feet resting on Jordan’s lap and Taylor plastered against his side, tasted almost as good as their combined five points in the next game.

Their third anniversary was different. The Oilers swept the Ducks in four and their anniversary fell squarely in the middle of a glorious week off before the second round of the playoffs. Ryan made reservations at a nice steakhouse and bullied his boyfriends into actually dressing up, or at least wearing something besides track pants, Hallsy, and he was determined to actually get laid on his anniversary this year. He'd spent the past month looking for gifts - it didn't matter if neither Taylor or Jordan got him anything in return - and felt weirdly like he should buy flowers, even thought he knew the only plant that had a prayer of surviving in their apartment was a cactus, and even then he didn't trust Taylor not to overwater it.

Dinner was excellent, his steak was perfect, Jordan wore a pair of jeans that did really great things for his ass and Taylor actually wore a tailored sports jacket. Over desert - a single piece of chocolate cake split between three guys wasn't really cheating on their diet - Ryan lightly kicked Jordan in the shin and said, "Hey, I got you a thing," handing him a box of Saskatchewan Roughriders golf club headcovers.

"Did you get me anything?" Taylor asked, leaning over to look at Jordan's gift.

Ryan slid an envelope with three tickets to the North by Northeast across the table.

Taylor grinned brightly at Ryan. "Not that we're complaining, Nuge, but why the presents? Are we getting presents if we sweep the second round of the playoffs too?" he asked.

Ryan felt the familiar surge of affection slightly tinged with despair that he was in love with someone so dumb. "It's our anniversary, you nons."

Taylor and Jordan exchanged looks. "No it's not," Jordan said.

"Yes, it is," Ryan said patiently. "Three years ago today you guys showed up at my mom's house after my surgery."

"Yeah, at your mom's house, while you were high on pain killers. And then we had to visit our families and then there was that golf tournament. We didn't actually go on a date until June. Our anniversary is June 16th." 

Next to him, Taylor nodded. "We rented a cottage for our anniversary last year. Did you not know?"

".... I just thought that was just a vacation."

They stared at each other over the remains of their cake. "Can we all agree that no one must ever find out about this?" Jordan said at last.

Taylor and Ryan nodded frantically. "The chirping would be horrible."

That night, once they were back in their apartment, Taylor pressed Ryan against the kitchen counter as he was setting the coffee pot and kissed him, long, hard and dirty. "Wanna get laid on your anniversary?"

"I thought you didn't think this was our anniversary," Ryan said, resting his forehead against Taylor's.

Jordan hip-checked him gently. "Well, apparently we have three years of forgotten anniversaries to make up for."

"You can pay us back this summer," Taylor added as they drug Ryan towards their bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for mockturtletale's prompt on the [home_ice prompt challenge](http://home-ice.livejournal.com/13077.html). I'm here on [Tumblr](http://lecturinginroom3b.tumblr.com/) and [LJ](http://til-midnight.livejournal.com/) if you want to say hi.


End file.
